honey

noun · adjective · verb

Simple meaning

A sweet yellow liquid produced by bees.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

huhnee

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhʌni

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

A sweet yellow liquid produced by bees
uncountable
A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.
figuratively
Something sweet or desirable.
A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
countable
A variety of this substance.
A term of affection.

adjective

Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like most types of honey.
Involving or resembling honey.
Honey-sweet.

verb

transitive
To sweeten; to make agreeable.
intransitive
To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.
intransitive
To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.
Sweeten with honey
transitive
To add honey to.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A sweet yellow liquid produced by bees

Used this way, honey is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use honey

“Would you like some honey in your tea to make it sweeter?”

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Sweet / spectrum

like honeyhoney production

Other combinations

honey beecomb honeyhoney locustsome honeycup honey

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

honey fungusnounCompound term
A honey-colored edible mushroom commonly associated with the roots of trees in late summer and fall.
honey glandnounCompound term
A gland (often a protuberance or depression) that secretes nectar.
honey guidenounCompound term
Small bird of tropical Africa and Asia.
honey locustnounCompound term
Tall usually spiny North American tree having small greenish-white flowers in drooping racemes followed by long twisting seed pods.
honey mesquitenounCompound term
Thorny deep-rooted drought-resistant shrub native to southwestern United States and Mexico bearing pods rich in sugar and important as livestock feed.
honey mushroomnounCompound term
A honey-colored edible mushroom commonly associated with the roots of trees in late summer and fall.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.